Strictly Speaking
by Flare Warrior
Summary: Harry is instructed to meet his soulmate to prevent an untimely outburst should they meet sometime in the future. Unfortunately, he meets Dean a few short seconds after he meets Eggsy.
1. Strictly Speaking

Strictly speaking, nearly everyone had something of an episode upon meeting their soulmate. It usually ranged from dazed infatuation to outright disaster, and was something of a common ice-breaking topic among couples who had met their matches.

Owing to the nature of the Kingsman, it was strongly suggested that they take something of a chaperone along to meet their soulmates (not that they had had need or occasion for such a thing in many years) to prevent any unfortunate deaths.

Still, Harry thought this was overkill. Percival raised his eyebrows even higher in response to Harry's incredulous look and beckoned with his outstretched hand.

"Your gun, Harry."

"Alistair, I hardly think I'm liable to shoot his family upon meeting him."

Percival didn't waiver "You brought me along to keep the peace. You and I both know that relieving you of your gun won't stop you from killing anyone if you really want to. This is a precaution to make sure you think about it first."

Harry made to argue but Percival leveled him with a stern, uncompromising stare "Don't underestimate what meeting him will do to you."

After a tense standoff, Harry sighed and handed over his Glock. Better to err on the side of caution - he probably wouldn't need the gun in the broad daylight of London anyhow, and if anyone had the authority to lecture him on the effects of meeting a soulmate it would be Percival.

"Happy?" Harry asked. Percival eyed Harry's knife, concealed as it was, with the right corner of his lips turned down, but eventually seemed to decide that there wasn't a lot of hope that he could completely relieve Harry of his weapons.

"Satisfied." Percival replied, and gestured for him to ascend the stairs.

Harry had been thirty-seven when the agency had called to inform him that his match had finally been registered, but that they couldn't say any more because his match was _six years old_. For twelve years, Harry had done his best to leave Gary "Eggsy" Unwin to his youth. He might have continued to leave him be if the acute danger of meeting Eggsy on a mission and losing sight of said mission to both of their detriment was not something Merlin wanted to avoid at all costs. After all, there were plenty of other options available to a young man saddled to someone thirty years their senior. But Merlin had insisted, and so there Harry was, trudging up the crumbling cement steps of the estates to the house of his soulmate on his eighteenth birthday.

Harry had some idea of what to expect. Merlin kept a file on Eggsy as a precaution (it would hardly be outside the realm of possibility that a Kingsman's soulmate would turn out to be a child genius and end up courted by some evil mastermind, after all), and Harry had read it with a creeping heat along the back of his neck, a strange haze falling over his mind - a sixth sense that he was looking at a reflection of significance. For all intents and purposes, Eggsy seemed extraordinary, if unmotivated. A promising youth who'd fallen in with the wrong crowd in recent years for unknown reasons.

Percival had gone somewhat stiff beside him when they reached the landing over something, and Harry fought to keep from rolling his eyes.

"You act as thought you expect me to kill everyone in sight with my bare hands and carry him off after," he quipped as he raised his hand to knock. Before his knuckles could make contact with the door, however, it was wrenched open and Harry's perception of reality became narrow and slow.

So this was Eggsy Unwin.

Eggsy didn't look the part of a man on his eighteenth birthday. His eyes - such a gleaming shade of green - were fixed behind him, flashing with an indignant sort of anger that Harry at once loved and wanted to sooth away. There was a sharpness to his cheekbones that seemed to imply he was almost too thin, but his frame was hidden under a baggy hoodie and worn jeans, his hair under a white snap-back.

His mind neatly corrected his earlier thought. So this was _his_.

"-a man and pull your own weight!" someone yelled, and Eggsy's voice radiated from his red lips a second later.

"You can go _fuck_ yourself, mate!"

Then those green eyes widened and time returned to its normal pace as someone - a heavy man Harry hadn't had eyes for - appeared behind Eggsy and slammed a fist into his cheek.

Several things happened in the split second that followed. Eggsy fell back from his place at the door and landed square in Harry's arms, Percival muttered "Shit," under the sharp snap of Harry's suit as he lashed out, and the man in the door fell howling with his arm bent very much in the wrong direction.

"Oh my god, Dean!" shouted a woman's voice as he landed.

"Percival, give me my gun." Harry said, his gaze glued to the man now writhing and cursing on the dirty linoleum of the kitchen. Eggsy remained safely against his chest, kept there possessively by Harry's arm across his shoulders.

"No, Harry."

Harry thought this was unfair, but Percival was a smart man whom he trusted, and a few short seconds of consideration made him remember why. "Perhaps that's for the best. Silly to make it so quick."

Percival sighed heavily. "Perchance ask the boy his opinion before you off his stepfather."

Harry blinked as his impaired mind took in the concept. He glanced down into wide green eyes and suddenly the only thing he wanted in the world was to do whatever it was their owner asked of him. Harry drew Eggsy nearer with one hand and cupped his face with the other, curling down to get closer to the young man in his arms.

"Darling, what do you want?"

Eggsy's reply was quick and fervent, as though his life hung in the balance "Your name."

Harry very nearly answered ' _it's yours_ ' before he realized that wasn't the basis of the question "Harry Hart."

" _Harry_ ," Eggsy repeated, and Harry wanted nothing more than to hear his name said in that voice every day for the rest of his life.

"Who the fuck are you?!" the woman shouted then.

Harry couldn't have been arsed to look away from Eggsy just then until Eggsy did it himself, his eyes shuttering just a bit as he glanced at the door. A blond had come to flit about the large man, seeming torn about staying at his side and coming to Eggsy's.

"Mum." Eggsy started, and then stopped. He glanced at his hands where they rested on Harry's suit and tried to draw back, but Harry's grip only tightened.

"Harry I'm all scuffed up. I'll mess up your clothes."

"To hell with them." Harry murmured, trying to find some way to draw Eggsy closer.

"Perhaps we all ought to calm ourselves and sit down for a chat." Percival suggested. Harry perceived him the way he perceived Switzerland in that instant. A remote island of peace.

"That fuckin' bastard broke my arm!" Dean shouted, thoroughly obscuring the misty image of harmony Percival had been trying to project "I'm gonna fuckin' kill 'im! Fuck - Muggsy! I'm gonna fuckin'-"

"Alright then," Percival stepped deliberately between Dean and Harry "I suggest you stay inside until we're gone or he really will kill you. There won't be much I can do to stop him if he tries seriously." He paused as he shut the door, saying on afterthought "Harry is Mister Unwin's soulmate. You understand. Come 'round to Kingsman tailors in a few days and we'll have a better talk." He paused again "Maybe leave the stepfather at home."

Harry ignored him in favor of acting the part of static cling, adhering himself to Eggsy the same way the boy was content to stick to him.

" _Harry_." Percival scolded when he turned, phone in his hand as he no doubt called for an ambulance.

Harry stopped just as he bent his knees, realizing he was about to do exactly what he'd scoffed at not ten minutes before. But Eggsy's cheek was red with a blossoming bruise and to Harry that was just cause. He frowned at Percival. "No. He's mine."

"Harry." Percival sighed.

"Alright, alright, I know. But you have to admit this is one situation where carrying him off is somewhat acceptable behavior."

"From your perspective or mine?" Percival asked and was summarily ignored as Harry swept Eggsy up into his arms.

"Oi, oi! Harry, for fuck's sake I can walk just fine!"

Harry was once again focused solely on Eggsy's reddening face "Do you want to?"

Eggsy's flush deepened and his gaze darted to the old woman who'd poked her head out of her door a few apartments down, but his only response was to tug his hat further down over his eyes and bury his face in Harry's collar.

"Fuckin' everyone is going to give me shit for this."

"Let them try." Harry replied dangerously.

"Oh good, you're going to be insufferable." Percival quipped behind him with the air of the only sane man left in all creation.

It wasn't until he was back in the car with Eggsy tucked safely against his side, head under his chin, that the world seemed to swim back into some semblance of focus. "My god, that _is_ powerful," he observed.

"I'm honestly impressed at your control. I expected you to kill the stepfather the moment we opened the door."

"My hands were full," Harry replied primly, then to Eggsy he muttered, the thought only occurring to him just then "What on earth was going on?"

Eggsy slouched, folding his arms over his chest "Dean wanted me to start doin' bigger runs for 'im, now that I'm a man or whatever."

"Runs?" Harry blinked. He had half a mind to unwind Eggsy's arms and tuck them around himself, but at least twenty percent of his rational brain was back online and he managed not to.

"Drugs. 's how he makes his money."

"Ah," now the sudden turn to petty crime and fall from academic and acrobatic excellence had an explanation. Harry's hand crept surreptitiously towards his phone.

"You are _not_ calling in that favor James owes you." Percival snapped, his gaze gone momentarily sharp.

"No one said anything about calling James." Harry replied, but stopped reaching for his phone all the same.

"Are you really my soulmate?" Eggsy asked, his fingers running along the pressed line of Harry's trousers absently.

"I can assure you that under normal circumstances I am much more reserved."

"Yeah but you're so-" Eggsy stopped and bit his lip.

Harry's mind supplied a litany of unsavory adjectives to end the sentence in the quiet, _old_ and _violent_ seemed to be the most likely though _weird_ would also be apt.

"Eggsy," he tilted Eggsy's chin up so he could look into his eyes, not entirely for unselfish reasons "This all happened very quickly - I had intended to be somewhat more gentlemanly in my approach. I can imagine I'm not what you expected or were hoping for-"

"Oh, sure, nobody wants a knight in shining armor." Eggsy quipped, then flushed and ducked his head "I meant that, you know, you're like, obviously well-off and upper class and all that and I'm wearing hand-me-downs from when I was fifteen, you get me? I'm thinkin' we're a weird match."

"Eggsy, I've known you for less than an hour and can confidently say that there are no mistakes in soulmarks."

Eggsy looked up at Harry through his eyelashes, some bashful hope shining though "Yeah?"

Harry smiled, and the world fell away "Of course. Eggsy, I want to know who you are. And even if you decide you'd rather try something else and not be tied to an old man, I want you to know you're welcome to stay with me as long as you like."

"I ain't goin' nowhere." Eggsy said with force, his hand coming to rest firmly on Harry's thigh.

"Merlin," Percival said from the seat opposite them "You owe me twenty quid, Harry didn't kill anyone."


	2. Put Simply

A/N: I'm still calling this story done in an act of denial. My denial muscles have been greatly strengthened by this fandom. Anyway, this could stand alone, or make a tiny bit more sense if you read chapter 1, then To Clarify (which is Chapter 1 from Eggsy's POV) then come back here, but don't let me live your life for you.

* * *

"Shit, ok," Eggsy popped the clip out of his gun, swore again and shoved it back in. Kay edged closer as the hail of gunfire chipped troublingly away at the brick wall nearer to his head. "Cover me while I get to the turret, yeah?"

"Cover you from a tank?"

"They're out of shells."

Eggsy's statement was undercut when the building in front of them lost a chunk in a very loud explosion.

"Ok," Eggsy said again once he could hear "but if they can't hit us now they won't hit me while I'm running."

Kay gave him a flat look, "And you intend to take the tank down with an M2 on an overturned Humvee?"

"I'm willing to gamble that I'll take them out before they figure out how to aim," Eggsy grinned rakishly, cocked his gun with one of his two remaining bullets, and had his thunder stolen when the hail of fire stopped and the men started yelling in panic before he even stood up. He didn't have time to do more than blink before the low buzz that had been drowned mostly out by the gunfire reached new heights, then ended in a deafening crash of screeching metal.

Eggsy popped up from behind the barrier and found that a shiny red biplane had mowed down half the militia and helpfully wrapped itself around the tank.

"Or that."

Beside him, Kay sighed.

Eggsy watched as a man swung out of the wreckage and lobbed a grenade down the barrel of the tank, then dropped to the ground and beat a quick, but not exactly hasty, retreat.

Eggsy knew those moves anywhere.

He grinned, and it was lit a moment later with orange light when the grenade went off with a low rumble, and the fire that shot out of the barrel caught the leaking fuel from the biplane and sent the entire thing up in a ball of flame.

"Hello darling," Harry greeted when Eggsy ran up to him.

"Harry!" Eggsy launched himself into Harry's arms, grinning "Fuck, that was _awesome_. What are you doing here?"

Harry smiled, warm and genuine. He wore a thick coat over his suit but was otherwise as perfectly done up as when he left the house in the morning, which was odd seeing as the plane was open-air. "I was in the neighborhood."

"You were in Hong Kong," Kay supplied from behind them, leaning pointedly against the brick monument sign that proudly displayed French lettering.

"Well, I had to get home somehow, didn't I."

"Harry, this is the fifth time," Kay muttered, possibly beginning a rant.

"Oh yeah, how was Hong Kong?" Eggsy asked brightly, apparently oblivious to the still-burning wreckage behind them and Kay's irritation.

"A bit cold for this time of year. I got you something."

Harry drew back and fished in his coat for a moment, withdrawing a bag he'd tied to his gun holster. From it he produced a snow globe with the Hong Kong skyline swelling cheerily up inside. Eggsy took it when offered, laughing and shaking is so snow fell on the city.

"You crashed a plane into a tank while holding a snow globe and it didn't break. That's right impressive, love. Think mine shattered when the truck flipped."

"That's why you're in training. You'll be able to take on small armies holding a baby before long."

Eggsy looked at Harry through the glass "Please tell me that's not a thing that happens often."

Their feeds crackled to life before Harry could answer, Kay informing Merlin of a mission completed.

* * *

Back at H.Q. Merlin scolded Harry so mildly that Eggsy figured Harry had just won Merlin something he wanted very much through the betting pool.

"Just because he's in training doesn't mean he's yours," Merlin began. Eggsy had been sent out into the hall while Merlin had a talk with 'the actual sanctioned field agent responsible for this mess'. Harry was casually sipping his tea, well aware of Merlin's all too cordial mood.

"But he is mine, _and_ he's in training. I don't see the problem with sending him out exclusively on joint missions with me," a deliberate sip "unless you'd like to keep fixing your bets."

Merlin stared at him. Harry stared blandly back.

At last Merlin rolled his eyes "Fine. But only because you do work well together, and once he's a fully-fledged agent I expect you to let him work alone."

"Of course. That's the whole point of this training period."

"The point is that he said he wanted to do it and you're a doting bastard. At least he's turned out to be good."

Harry set his tea aside and stood, "He's been spectacular and you know it. Otherwise you never would have let me brow-beat you."

Eggsy hadn't gone far. Harry found him a few yards down the hall, leaning against the wall and talking with Lancelot. He smiled brightly at Harry's approach.

"Grounded?"

Harry stopped only a hair away from touching him, smiling fondly himself. "No, but I'm not allowed to go out or have anyone over for two weeks."

"Shame, guess we'll have to go to bed early then, yeah?"

"Only if you want."

James, witnessing this, proved his intelligence by blurting "You two haven't even had sex yet?!"

Eggsy jolted like he'd forgotten he was there, flushed and ducked his head, "Oi, shut up."

"Mary, Mother of God, give me strength," Merlin prayed behind them, and Harry turned.

"Merlin, I'm hurt. You really think I'd ravish him before he was settled?"

Merlin only continued to look distressed.

"Well, as much as I've enjoyed sharing, we've been given a mission," Harry nodded down the corridor "Eggsy, with me."


End file.
